The Smurfs (comics)
The Smurfs is a Belgian comic series, created by cartoonist Peyo (pen name of Pierre Culliford). The fictional characters of the Smurfs first appeared in Johan and Peewit in 1958, and the first independent Smurf comics appeared in 1959. Thirty Smurf comic albums have been created, 16 of them by Peyo. Originally, the Smurf stories appeared in Spirou magazine with reprints in many different magazines, but after Peyo left the publisher Dupuis, many comics were first published in dedicated Smurf magazines, which existed in French, Dutch and German. A number of short stories and one page gags have been collected in comic books next to the regular series of 30. By 2008, Smurf comics have been translated into 25 languages, and some 25 million albums have been sold. A new Smurfs comic album sold in 2009 in French alone some 140,000 copies. And a new Smurfs comic album was released in 2012 now making the title of albums to thirty. History In 1952, Peyo created a Franco-Belgian comics series in Le Journal de Spirou titled Johan et Pirlouit (translated to English as Johan and Peewit), set in Europe during the Middle Ages. Johan serves as a brave young page to the king, and Pirlouit (pronounced Peer-loo-ee) functions as his faithful, if boastful and cheating, midget sidekick. On October 23, 1958, Peyo introduced a new set of characters to the Johan et Pirlouit story La flûte à six trous (tr. "The Flute with Six Holes"). This alone caused no great excitement, as the brave duo constantly encountered strange new people and places. This time, they had the mission of recovering a magic flute, which required some sorcery by the wizard Homnibus. And in this manner, they met a tiny, blue-skinned humanoid creature in white clothing called a "Schtroumpf," followed by his numerous peers who looked just like him, with an elderly leader who wore red clothing and had a white beard called Papa Smurf. The characters proved to be a huge success, and the first independent Smurf stories appeared in Spirou in 1959, together with the first merchandising. Albums This is the list of the original French-language comic issues. Some of them are anthologies of several stories. A number of them were translated into English by Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge, and published by Hodder & Stoughton (Random House in the USA). Although they are popular and common to find in bookstores in Europe as well as in the Canadian province of Québec, they are more difficult to find abroad (from where?). Johan and Peewit appearances La flûte à six schtroumpfs (originally titled as La flûte à six trous) La guerre des sept fontaines Le pays maudit Le sortilège de Maltrochu La horde du corbeau La nuit des sorciers Original series Look-In Magazine Strips In the 1970s and '80s, a British children's magazine called Look-In ran an original series of one-page comic-strip tales called "Meet the Smurfs." Marvel Comics In 1982 Marvel Comics released a Three issue mini series featuring full length stories and one page American style comic strip tales featuring The Smurfs. Marvel Comics also published a large format comic book as well as six mini comic books with a full length story in each comic book. Papercutz Graphic Novels Since August 2010, Papercutz has been issuing Smurfs comics, translated by Joe Johnson. Following a special preview comic in July 2010 that contained the story "The Smurfnapper," the following graphic novels have been issued to date: # The Purple Smurfs (August 31, 2010, ISBN 978-1-59707-207-6) # The Smurfs and the Magic Flute (August 31, 2010, ISBN 978-1-59707-209-0) # The Smurf King (November 23, 2010, ISBN 978-1-59707-225-0) # The Smurfette (January 18, 2011, ISBN 978-1-59707-237-3) # The Smurfs and the Egg (March 15, 2011, ISBN 978-1-59707-247-2) # The Smurfs and the Howlibird (May 10, 2011, ISBN 978-1-59707-261-8) # The Astrosmurf (August 2, 2011, ISBN 978-1-59707-251-9) # The Smurf Apprentice (September 27, 2011, ISBN 978-1-59707-280-9) # Gargamel and the Smurfs (November 22, 2011, ISBN 978-1-59707-290-8) # The Return of the Smurfette (January 17, 2012, ISBN 978-1-59707-293-9) # The Smurf Olympics (March 27, 2012, ISBN 978-1-59707-302-8) # Smurf Versus Smurf (August 7, 2012, ISBN 978-1-59707-321-9) # Smurf Soup (November 13, 2012, ISBN 978-15970-7359-2) # The Baby Smurf (March 5, 2013, ISBN 978-1-59707-382-0) # The Smurflings (May 14, 2013, ISBN 978-1-59707-407-0) # The Aerosmurf (August 6, 2013, ISBN 978-1-59707-426-1) Papercutz published "The Smurf Submarine" in Geronimo Stilton & Smurfs for Free Comic Book Day on May 7, 2011.http://www.freecomicbookday.com/comics.asp?ItemNo=JAN110010 Sources * [http://bdoubliees.com/journalspirou/series6/schtroumpfs.htm Les Schtroumpfs publications in Spirou] BDoubliées ;Footnotes External links *The Smurfs official site *Happy Smurfday: Official Smurfs 50th Anniversary site *List of Papercutz Graphic Novels Category:Comics characters Category:Comics featuring anthropomorphic characters Category:Lombard Editions titles Category:Smurfs Category:Star Comics titles Category:Dupuis titles Category:French-language literature Category:1959 comic debuts Category:Comics characters introduced in 1958 Category:Comics by Peyo